Victoria’s Secret used to be the lingerie brand to rule them all, but in recent years its stock has very literally plummeted as the company’s head decision-makers failed to keep up with the times.
The market share has been declining and so have the number of people tuning into the iconic annual fashion show. So now Victoria’s Secret L Brands CEO Les Wexner has let slip in a memo obtained by CNBC that they are going to ‘rethink’ the fashion show to evolve with the digital age.
The party line is that “going forward we don’t believe network television is the right fit,” which is basically blaming the poor ratings on the dwindling relevance of Network TV as opposed to the dwindling relevance of the brand itself.
But we all know that Victoria’s Secret and the annual fashion show has lost fans because the brand still reps a uniformed, unrealistic body-type that is no longer what we want to see.
Check out the body diversity at the 2017 VS Show!
Victoria’s Secret refuses to represent any women who are not very tall, very thin, and as far as body-types go, very similar. As a company, they are reinforcing the damaging message that women are only sexy, have the right to feel sexy, wear sexy outfits and express their sexuality, if they have zero per cent body fat.
It’s 2019, we want better, and they have failed to evolve. That is why Victoria’s Secret is failing.
The brand messaging is not accident, which was made clear by the Chief Marketing Officer Ed Razek last year when he commented in a Vogue interview that Victoria’s Secret will not showcase plus-size or transgender women in their annual show.
Using the outdated and offensive term ‘transsexual’, Razek stated that trans and plus-size women do not exemplify the “fantasy” that Victoria’s Secret is selling.
His comments garnered the backlash they deserve, and Razek retracted them in a weak attempt to recover the brand.
The problem with Victoria’s Secret is that they are still selling underwear to women by appealing to men. If they paid attention to what we actually want, they would realise that it is not the male fantasy of female perfection that they’re stubbornly sticking to.
We want diverse bodies, diverse people, and diverse products that represent who the consumers are and what we need. At this point, VS is tragically far behind the body-positive movement and that is the company’s own fault.
Meanwhile, other lingerie brands are keeping up with the demand, like Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty line. Rihanna put Victoria’s Secret to shame with her epic lingerie fashion show at last year’s New York Fashion Week.
Rihanna clearly doesn’t play when it comes to diversity #SavageXFenty pic.twitter.com/JrYrt24kGd
— ☽ (@eallets) September 13, 2018
Rihanna showcased an inclusive line with flexible lingerie for everyone. Concluding it with the models holding hands showing solidarity . #SAVAGExFENTY pic.twitter.com/m4STLaAOGO
— Karen Civil (@KarenCivil) September 13, 2018
Rihanna demonstrated that diversity is not that hard to achieve if you just decide to do it. People loved the show, people love her brand, and people did not shy away from making savage comparisons with the outdated Victoria’s Secret show.
Victoria Secret has been giving us the same Fashion Show for YEARS. Rihanna is giving diversity, choreography, representation of all body types and this is her first show. #SavageXFenty
— Wendy (@godisawendy) September 13, 2018
Victoria’s Secret’s problem is not Network TV, it’s that the company has refused to meet the demands of its consumers. That’s why we have lost interest.